Gardner stars in pairs event

RHONDA Solomon (Boronia) partnered by Neil Thurling and Jill Gardner (Ferntree Gully) partnered by husband Marshall, were pitted against each other in a game to decide the overall winners in the Wednesday pairs competition at the Alexander Avenue home of the Upwey-Tecoma Bowls Club.
With the men having to play the shots dictated by their female skips, and the ladies playing the deciding shots for each end, a very entertaining game emerged.
Second year bowler Solomon was “on fire” for the first half of the game but the experience of seasoned Gardner told in the end as she calmly settled to produce some great draw shots to win the day with eight shots up.
In the triples section, club champion Robin Southern steered his mates Murray Stewart and Kevin Gamel to a five shots win in their second game over the Deiter Eick-skipped team of Don Andrews and Ken Walters and finish the day with a decisive overall win by 12 shots up.
The most unusual play of the day would have to be the performance by Brian Cross and Mal Osborne in the pairs event.
After winning their first game by a massive 14 shots they completely “lost the plot” to lose their second game by five shots and put them out of contention for the winners’ spoils.
The consolation prize for the day went to the trio of Fred Wilson, Ron Pankhurst and Joe Knurr, who after losing their first game by a big margin of 17 shots, staged a comeback to win their second game by 13 shots.